PLANET POP

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Mon, Nov 05, 2007 - Page 13

Ozzy Osbourne wants an apology from a county sheriff for staging a pre-concert sting operation in the rocker's name without his permission.

Osbourne claims his reputation was tarnished when Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney invited 500 people with outstanding warrants to a phony party at a Fargo nightclub before the rocker's concert with Rob Zombie at a nearby arena. More than 30 showed up and were arrested.

"Instead of holding a press conference to pat himself on the back, Sheriff Laney should be apologizing to me for using my name in connection with these arrests," the rocker said in a statement.

"It is insulting to me and to my audience and it shows how lazy this particular sheriff is when it comes to doing his job," Osbourne said.

Laney said Friday that it is his job to arrest people with outstanding warrants.

"We meant no disrespect toward Mr Osbourne or his show," Laney said. "What we did was a very creative law enforcement technique to lure individuals who had active criminal warrants to come to us." He said mentioning Osbourne's name in the invitations was no different than a bar advertising a Super Bowl party by mentioning the teams playing in the game.

Laney said Monday's sting was done to let the community know his office was doing its best to serve about 3,000 outstanding warrants it must deal with.

"They get very creative in how they abscond from the law," the sheriff said of the wanted individuals. "We just got real creative in how we reeled them in," Laney said.

Not everyone is taking the sting personally, Laney said.

"Three people called to say, 'I got one of those letters. Since you're being so creative, I'm turning myself in. Give me a court date,"' Laney said.

Duran Duran is getting its "sexy back."

More than 25 years after the release of its first album, 1980s pop group Duran Duran is still learning new tricks - this time from hip-hop mogul Timbaland and pop sensation Justin Timberlake.

Simon LeBon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor and Roger Taylor joined forces with the US stars for their thirteenth album, Red Carpet Massacre, due to be released in the US on Nov. 13 and in the UK on Nov. 19.

"What they taught us was that you had to be quick and that your first ideas are often the best ideas. We have made quite a few albums which were quite long, tortuous processes," Taylor said.

Former Mouseketeer Timberlake produced and sang on the first single, Falling Down, while Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley produced and is featured on three tracks. Another eight songs were produced by Duran Duran and Nate "Danja" Hills, who also worked with pop star Britney Spears on her latest album.

"It's a real collaboration and we haven't really written with that many artists before," said keyboardist Rhodes.

Not only has Duran Duran been taking notes, so has Timberlake - who was born the same year Duran Duran released their first album - says a Billboard review of Falling Down.

"Duran Duran has remained relevant enough without any outside help through the years; is this kid going to contemporize the band into an object of ridicule?" it asked.

"Thankfully, Falling demonstrates surprising versatility from Timberlake. The song is true to Duran Duran's beloved melodic imprint, demonstrating that Timberlake is the one who's learning new tricks here," Billboard said.

Deborah Santana cited irreconcilable differences in her Oct. 19 filing in Marin County Superior Court, the California paper said on its Web site on Thursday.

It quoted the musician's publicist as saying the pending divorce was "a private matter and there is no comment."

The couple has three children. In a 2000 Rolling Stone magazine cover story, Carlos Santana said his wife was his spiritual, emotional and financial "guiding light," adding that he would "probably be a hobo" if she had not restructured his business life in 1994.

He described himself as the "space cadet" in the relationship, and she said she had "trained" him to involve himself fully in their children's lives, take out the trash and drive the car pool when he was not touring.